


Triage

by Yeomanrand



Category: Star Trek (2009)
Genre: 100-1000 Words, Competence Porn, Gen, Missing Scene, Short
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-05-20
Updated: 2010-05-20
Packaged: 2017-10-09 14:51:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/88591
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yeomanrand/pseuds/Yeomanrand
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A missing scene showing the chaos in the Enterprise's Medical Bay after the death of Dr. Puri.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Triage

His own heart rate sending the sensors screaming, McCoy throws himself over his patient. A monitor bounces off his lower back and he hisses but doesn't move until the Enterprise is steady again. Lord only knows what's going on in the command deck. McCoy certainly doesn't, and he hasn't the time to find out, either. What he's got is his hands full of burned, scalded, and otherwise injured crew.

At some point, he took some shrapnel to his shoulder. He feels no pain, but the blood is sticky and warm and seeping through his regulation undershirt. He also knows that the injury is low priority. He will heal. He's not so sure of the survival of the cadet he's tending to; the unconscious engineer took the full brunt of a collapsing beam.

Christine Chapel is nearby, the nasty laceration on her temple still oozing, dried blood darkening her eyebrow. She's sedating one of the older communications crew. Yellow bone shows through black and red char at ribs and shoulder, the faint pulsing of lung beneath bone. McCoy and Chapel both know death is imminent, though McCoy knows from her soothing tone below the howling that she's lying through her teeth that everything is going to be all right.

It's kind of her, but he chafes at the delay.

The scanner shows him that his patient has severe internal injuries, but nothing fatal with the right treatment _right now_ and McCoy races across Sick Bay to get what he needs because there's no point hollering for a nurse to assist; Christine is already moving on to the next patient in the triage line. The ship - had he really thought she was beautiful? - has stopped rocking but he can't take more than a breath to be grateful for the stillness. He sinks a hypospray into his struggling patient's throat and takes a second breath to be grateful for medical advances as he begins convincing organs that they want to heal without having to open her up.

She'll probably make it. If they don't encounter any more trouble.

The ship seems to have settled around them and McCoy's moving to his next badly injured patient when the communications whistle sounds, followed by Spock's voice asking for Dr. Puri. He and Chapel both look at the intercom; he sees the same irritation and impatience in her eyes he knows are in his own when he answers.

The conversation is brief, and he'll probably find himself up on insubordination charges when they get back to the 'Fleet. He's not worried about himself. He barks an order at Chapel and his other remaining nurse, not sparing a glance for the body of his predecessor. They have lives to save, bones to set, wounds to suture, and no damned time to worry about who's in charge.


End file.
